Pune Techie Arrested Over False Claim About Bomb On Flight: Police

A 28-year-old software engineer was arrested on Friday for claiming that there was a bomb on a Pune-Ranchi flight after getting into a fight with airline officials here, police said.

Though his claim turned out to be false, it sent the authorities into a tizzy and the flight was delayed for three hours.

Rushikesh Sawant, the accused, was subsequently arrested, said police official Bharat Jadhav said.

Mr Sawant escorted his wife to the Pune airport on Friday morning as she was to fly to Ranchi.

"She was supposed to return on October 16. As the airport operations here are going to remain closed from October 16 to 29 as the IAF will be undertaking runway resurfacing work, the accused wanted to reschedule her return journey on October 15," the official said.

"The airline authorities told him that her ticket has been rescheduled but the change of date will reflect three days prior to the return journey," the police officer said.

Not convinced, Rishikesh Sawant got into a heated exchange with airline staff and claimed that there was a bomb on a Ranchi-bound flight, the inspector said.

"He claimed to have had a dream last night about a bomb on the plane. The authorities took the plane off the tarmac and called us. We conducted a search thoroughly and found nothing, but the flight got delayed by three hours," inspector Jadhav said.

A case was registered against Mr Sawant under Indian Penal Code section 509 (insult to the modesty of any woman) as there were women among airline officials with whom he had the tiff, and section 505 (statements conducing to public mischief).